Mental Health is Health

Physical health and men­tal health have long been thought of as two sep­a­rate enti­ties, but the truth is, men­tal health is health. When I say that, I mean that the two should be treat­ed as equal­ly impor­tant, but there is an unfor­tu­nate neg­a­tive stig­ma asso­ci­at­ed with men­tal health care that we must work to break down. 

When our men­tal health is poor, our phys­i­cal health also suffers.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (2025), there are strong con­nec­tions between men­tal health con­di­tions and oth­er health prob­lems, espe­cial­ly heart dis­ease. After sig­nif­i­cant diag­noses, we can even devel­op men­tal health dis­or­ders as a response to acute stress. Our bod­ies make a hor­mone called cor­ti­sol, which helps reg­u­late func­tions like sleep, blood pres­sure, stress response, inflam­ma­tion, and more (Cleveland Clinic, 2025). When we have too much stress caused by sit­u­a­tion­al fac­tors or untreat­ed chron­ic men­tal health con­di­tions like anx­i­ety, our bod­ies can make too much of this hor­mone. Then, things get thrown off bal­ance. When cor­ti­sol lev­els are too high, we can expe­ri­ence poor health out­comes like can­cer, dia­betes, and high blood pres­sure. This is just one exam­ple of the exchange between the sys­tems that reg­u­late men­tal and phys­i­cal func­tion­ing together.

Additionally, research shows peo­ple who have expe­ri­enced men­tal or emo­tion­al trau­ma are like­ly to suf­fer from phys­i­cal health prob­lems, even years after the trau­mat­ic events have occurred. Most peo­ple have expe­ri­enced some type of trau­mat­ic or stress­ful event in their life­time. Therefore, it’s essen­tial to take extra steps in get­ting pre­ven­ta­tive care for peo­ple with a trau­ma his­to­ry. Preventive care involves:

• Getting a pri­ma­ry care provider and going to all appointments
• Getting check-ups
• Having con­ver­sa­tions about con­cern­ing symptoms
• Getting screen­ings for chron­ic health con­di­tions, like can­cer and diabetes
• Accepting any refer­rals to spe­cial­ists arranged by your pri­ma­ry care provider

Because stress­ful sit­u­a­tions are dif­fi­cult to endure, it’s cru­cial to engage the help of a neu­tral source, like a ther­a­pist, who can pro­vide you with tools to man­age stres­sors. Fortunately, sev­er­al com­mu­ni­ty men­tal health agen­cies in Winchester offer men­tal health ther­a­py, like Mountain Comprehensive Care, NYAP, and New Vista. Private options for men­tal health care are also avail­able. Telehealth ser­vices are also avail­able for those who have trans­porta­tion bar­ri­ers or who feel more com­fort­able at home. 

If you are unin­sured or unsure how to locate a provider, you can con­tact the local health depart­ment for more infor­ma­tion or check out this web­site: https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help

It’s human to expe­ri­ence stress or health prob­lems, and seek­ing help is no shame. I work in a clin­ic where I coun­sel patients on inte­grat­ing men­tal health care into their over­all care because it improves treat­ment out­comes. I prac­tice what I preach. To be trans­par­ent, I have sought men­tal health ser­vices through both med­ica­tion man­age­ment and ther­a­py, where I learned to look deep­er at some of my prob­lems and gain skills that help me cope with the nat­ur­al stres­sors of life.

What can you do to improve your over­all health? If you have an untreat­ed men­tal health dis­or­der or wor­ry that you may be expe­ri­enc­ing sig­nif­i­cant stress, it’s good to seek sup­port from a men­tal health ther­a­pist as well as some­one who can help with med­ica­tion man­age­ment, like a psy­chi­a­trist or your pri­ma­ry care doc­tor. Communicating about men­tal health care helps tack­le stig­ma and improve over­all well­ness for every­one in our community.

Sources

https://www.cdc.gov/mental-health/about/index.html
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/22187-cortisol